August 03, 2010

After getting in hot water for his words of idiocy about Brazil, it came out that Sylvester Stallone supposedly owes a whopping US$2 million to local Brazilian production companies, drivers, security guards, and other staff hired to work on The Expendables movie in Rio state.

President Lula's offer of asylum to an Iranian woman convicted to death by stoning for adultery was rejected this week. Iranian officials were vague, but claimed that Lula was "emotional" and "probably lacked information" about the case. I'm hoping Lula tries again, but given the oppressive regime in Iran, it looks unlikely that the woman will be allowed into exile. Thanks to Ernesto for an interesting op ed on the incident here.

Illegal shark fishing has become a hot business in Brazil. According to the Environmental Justice Institute, over 300,00 sharks have been killed off the Brazilian coast this year alone, and are then exported to Asian markets. The EJI is suing a Brazilian company that has illegally sold the majority of the shark fins, and has warned that the ecosystem has suffered serious damages.

Also, I'd just like to tack on a quick and long overdue thank you to two bloggers. Thanks to Quintino over at Diario do Rio, for adding me to his Carioca links list. Obrigada! For those who love Rio, if you haven't already, add DDR to your RSS feed or to your daily reads, and also check out the Rio blogs on his list. Also, a thank you to Maria Helena, who has written several very kind posts about me and has even patiently translated one or two of my (long!) posts into Portuguese. Valeu!

March 25, 2010

Recently I got hooked on Dexter, and last night, I spotted something weird when they showed a brief shot of what was supposed to be Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Odd, considering that in Port-au-Prince the wealthy live high on the hills, not at sea level, and considering the scene looks an awful lot like one of the favelas in Flamengo or Catete, looking out over Flamengo, Urca, the Cagarras Islands, Guanabara Bay and the Sugarloaf. Ou seja, Rio de Janeiro.

March 23, 2010

While I've been hesitant to write about the whole Arruda affair, since I'm waiting to see how it plays out, I couldn't resist writing about the Paulo Maluf Interpol scandal.

It began in 2007, when the Manhattan District Attorney indicted Maluf, the former mayor of Sao Paulo, for allegedly stealing US$11.6 million from a Brazilian public works project and illegally transferring the stolen funds through a bank in New York. The press release of the indictment reads like a bad movie. Read the full document here, and the full indictment here. Here are some excerpts from the DA's press release:

"PAULO MALUF, the former Governor and Mayor of the State and
City of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and currently a Federal Deputy in the lower
house of the National Congress of Brazil, is charged with participating
in an over-invoicing and kickback scheme, which generated millions of
dollars in criminal proceeds. The stolen funds were illegally
transferred to a bank account in New York secretly controlled by MALUF,
and then wired to another account under MALUF’s control in the Isle of
Jersey, the Channel Islands. Some of the kickback funds were used to
pay for personal expenses in the United States and Brazil and to
finance political campaigns in Brazil.

The investigation disclosed that while MALUF was the Mayor from 1993 to
1997, and continuing thereafter, the defendants conspired to steal and
stole massive amounts of money from the City of Sao Paulo. MALUF used
his position to install close friends and allies in key positions
within the municipal government to facilitate the scheme.

The MALUFs received the kickbacks through both cash payments and the
transmission of funds through illegal black market money operations,
known as “doleiros,” to accounts they controlled in New York. Some of
these illegal transmissions were in the form of wire transfers sent to
an account at Safra National Bank, 546 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan,
maintained under the code name “Chanani.” The Chanani account was
opened by ALVES, who falsely indicated to the bank that ALVES and his
wife were the beneficial owners of the Chanani account, when, in fact,
it was controlled by the MALUFs."

While Maluf was briefly imprisoned in Brazil in 2005 on corruption charges, he was released due to health reasons and has since then been free, and is currently serving as a federal congressman. Since Maluf was never extradited, the New York indictment had no real effect. But now, three years later, the district attorney decided to try something new, and placed Maluf on Interpol's criminal "red list." Maluf's son, who was also named in the indictment, was also placed on the red list. Theoretically, if Maluf or his son leave Brazil, they could be arrested, since the red list is effective in over 180 countries.

At first, Maluf shrugged it off as an election year stunt. But now, he's pissed, and he has decided to sue the New York DA. He has hired white collar crime defense lawyers from Kostelanetz & Fink, who have a lovely website that opens with a Martin Luther King, Jr quote, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." (I guess they're trying to be ironic.) In his explanation of the lawsuit, Maluf claims the DA's move was "arbitrary" and violates international law
and Brazil's sovereignty.

But the Sao Paulo DA, who incidentally is an expert on international law cooperation and an advocate of fighting corruption, disagrees: he says the New York DA has every right to go after Maluf, who is considered a wanted man.

Supposedly, negotiations began back in December with the hopes that the two parties could come to a "friendly" solution, rather than a legal battle. Although the Church doesn't charge people to use the image of the statue, they do have "veto power" over its use, which they have apparently used before during Carnival and other events. According to one report, Columbia requested use of the footage to the Archdiocese and was denied, but used the footage anyway. In addition to financial compensation, the Church is demanding a public retraction from the movie studio.

I'm going to go ahead and call bullshit on this. The idea that an organism, be it a church or a government, having this type of control over the use of a public monument's image is absolutely ridiculous. The Christ statue, albeit religious in nature, is a symbol of Rio and internationally, a symbol of Brazil. It's incredible how such an archaic arrangement could still be in place, especially with such an important national treasure. Ironically, it reminds me of the latest New York Lotto print ads, which feature New York landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building with big price tags on them:

Also, if the church doesn't charge for the use of the image, demanding payment for its "unauthorized" use is what exactly? That smells like a lawsuit. It seems to me that the Archdiocese is going to have to sue Columbia, because I'd imagine this kind of demand is not going to go over so well. If they don't reach an agreement by March, the Church says the will bring an "official" lawsuit.

Interestingly, on many of the articles, Brazilians expressed their anger with the Archdiocese and noted that they had loved seeing the Christ in the 2012 movie, since it was evidence of Brazil's rising importance and made them feel proud. There are so many disaster movies where American and European monuments are destroyed with glorious special effects, but never any with scenes from Brazil. This really made an impact on Brazilians - the simple recognition was an incredible stamp of approval and renewed source of national pride. It had an especially important effect because Brazil was included as a major part of civilization, another country on par with the US, Europe and India, rather than the stereotypical images of Amazonian "savages" or scantily clad beachgoers. It was an equalizing moment, even though it was a fictional image of destruction. If you really want to look into the symbolism for what the scenes meant for Brazilians, it could be seen as the end of a history of marginalization, the end of the perpetual "country of the future," a kind of rebirth for Brazil.

Given the Archdiocese's ridiculous demand and a likely lawsuit, this could potentially discourage other filmmakers to include the Christ statue in their movies, or even encourage them to exclude Brazil altogether, given that the statue is the best known image of Brazil to gringos. We'll see how it plays out, but it might get ugly.

February 21, 2010

Last week, I came across some information online claiming that Disney is planning on opening its first theme park in Latin America in Curitiba, Brazil. I couldn't find anything about it in English, nor could I find any official information, so I can't guarantee this is definitely going to happen. Really, at this point, it's hearsay.

But given Disney's plans to build a theme park in China, and the fact that Curitiba is already a prime location for multinationals (it is home to one of only two IMAX theaters in Brazil, as well as the Brazilian headquarters for several major corporations, including HSBC), it seems possible. According to the sources, Curitiba was chosen due to its excellent infrastructure, its strategic location (its proximity to the city of Sao Paulo as well as several Mercosul countries), and its international airport.

So here are some of the details of the supposed plan to build DisneyLand Brazil:

Construction is due to begin in August 2011 and is scheduled to last up to five years;

The park will occupy 25 square kilometers, and the DisneyLand complex will be made up of four areas: a theme park, a water park, a zoo, and a shopping and hotel complex;

There will be a special part of the park just for Zé Carioca (!), who will be one of the main personalities at the park, along with Mickey, Minnie, and co.;

The park will offer packages to visit other Brazilian attractions, including Iguacu Falls and the Amazon, costal cruises, and special Disney hotel packages in major Brazilian cities, including Rio, Floripa, Recife, Salvador, and others;

Disney-owned resorts in Rio, Porto Seguro, and Manaus;

the launch of several Disney-owned TV channels, including Disney Channel Brazil, a new HBO brand that will include American channels like A&E, E!, and others, and a host of ABC Brazil channels (including news, ABC Family, and ABC);

Several Disney-owned radio stations;

a Buena Vista Pictures/Disney Pictures complex for making movies and dubbing/subtitling American movies into Portuguese.

There are some obvious pros and cons to an enormous undertaking like this, but the potential large number of jobs it could produce are a strong factor in its favor. Though the project will depend on talks with Parana government officials, it may also depend to the next Brazilian presidential administration, which will also be responsible for massive infrastructure and construction projects for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics. Aside from political support, Disney will have to throw some serious money around to get such a big project off the ground.

It looks like Disney is keeping its plans hush hush until they are finalized, but I'll be sure to post any new information as it becomes available.

February 02, 2010

At first glance, Campus Party sounds like some sort of college event to the gringo ear. But in reality, it's one of Spain and Latin America's biggest technology events, drawing thousands of geeks and businesspeople and computer experts every year.

The event began in Spain in 1997 as a Lan party, connecting internet users throughout the country. Later, Campus Parties sprung up in Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, and most notably, in Brazil. It was first held in Brazil in 2008, and just took place in Sao Paulo from January 25 - 31. This year, they had over 6,000 participants in the main event, where people brought their own computers and even slept over in tents. Well over 100,000 people came for the free events held at the convention center as a party of the main event.

Since Brazil is now one of the big Internet countries, where technology is ultra-modern, where Google dominates the market, where the base of Internet and computer users grows steadily each year, and where there's lots of money to be made, Campus Party is a huge networking event for entrepreneurs, businesspeople, designers, bloggers, and others who work with technology. Celebrities, academics, and computer whizzes alike come to the conference to give speeches, interact with the "campers," and exchange ideas. There are workshops, contests and prizes and all sorts of fun stuff. It's the cutting edge of the technological world, and the who's who of the Internet business in Brazil are expected to make an appearance. To give you an idea of how big of a deal it is, this year, two presidential candidates (Marina Silva and Dilma Rousseff) both made an appearance at the event.

For outsiders, it can seem a bit odd to see thousands of people sitting around on their laptops, especially when some are seemingly in their own world but are actually chatting with people across the room. But there's a whole lot more to the party than that, and I felt very jealous reading about friends at the event. It's really a one of a kind experience, and for geeks and Internet businesspeople, it's the place to be.